Rapid Responses to:
|
|
Rapid Responses: Rapid Responses published:
-
![[Read Rapid Response]](/icons/misc/sectionDOWN.gif)
Challenges in revitalising and restoring academic medicine
- Hilary Humphreys (20 October 2004)
|
|
|||
|
Hilary Humphreys, Professor of Clinical Microbiology nad Consultant Microbiologist Department of Clinical Microbiology, RCSI Education & Research Centre, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9
Send response to journal:
|
Sir, I read with considerable interest the articles on this subject in the edition of the 2nd of October last. I welcome this debate and the promised subsequent programme of action, but there are a number of misconceptions that are widely shared by academics and others, and many challenges that need to be addressed. My comments address the remit of those active in research, teaching and service delivery, even if for some, one or more of these are predominant. The role of the full-time medically qualified doctor exclusively engaged in research is, in my view, separate to this. It is agreed that scholarship is an important component of academic medicine. However, this is not often fully appreciated by universities, medical schools, or hospital trusts. For example, refereeing peer-reviewed papers, participation on editorial boards and delivering outside lectures, are not rated highly by some academic institutions and do not contribute greatly to many research assessments. Furthermore, the major components of the working life of many academics are all very demanding in their own right, with conflicting deadlines on frequent occasions. Those to whom we are responsible, e.g. hospital chief executives, don’t always take cognizance of this largely because they are under considerable pressure themselves. These multiple demands on our time need to be acknowledged but we must also highlight the benefit of the cross-flow between the different activities, e.g. service delivery is likely to be enhanced by a research and a learning environment. Whilst we must maintain the link between medical research and service delivery, we also have to acknowledge that some basic research is probably best carried out in biomedical institutes and not necessarily in medical schools. However, clinical research or applied research is best conducted close to the patient either in the community or in hospitals and should ideally be multi- disciplined to avail of the best available expertise. However, although there are challenges to be faced by medical academics, the career track of science graduates is even less secure and this needs to be considerably improved. Too often, excellent scientists are lost abroad or move to industry because of inadequate remuneration or poor career prospects. I do not share the somewhat negative view of the impact of industry on academic medicine. Collaboration with industry is valuable and can often provide resources that are not available from government, grant awarding bodies or charitable organizations. As long as the terms of the arrangement between academics and industry is clear and ethical, and that potential conflicts of interest are transparent, we should continue to avail of funding from industry for worthwhile research, especially if it is not otherwise available. Also, if we do not collaborate with, and remain in touch with, industry, pharmaceutical firms, for example, will develop products for which there is no use, or may market products inappropriately. One of the failures of medical academics has often been to try to be all things to all people at all times. We need to define more precisely what the objectives of the medical academic are, prioritise the key components, and then agree both nationally and locally how best they can be fulfilled. In particular, it needs to be agreed that protected time is essential to adequately deal with such issues as clinical governance and quality in medical education and also to be active in research, all of which are currently within the remit of the medical academic. Whilst one of the alternatives is to completely separate these, I believe there is going to be a continuing need for individuals who are interested, motivated and active in all three areas. Yours sincerely, Competing interests: The author's department has received funding from Pfizer Ltd (Ireland) to support research in recent years |
|||